Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery

[Brian Scott]

Hey Fish Friends,

Last week I received my first order from Aquarium Co-Op, which included a Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatchery.  I'm on my second batch of BBS hatched out of this thing, and the results have been outstanding.

My current "recipe" is the suggested TWO liters of water (I use lukewarm to slightly hot so as to dissolve the salt and buffer quicker), FOUR tablespoons of rock salt, ONE teaspoon of Epsom salt, ONE teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and TWO teaspoons of BBS eggs.  I add the BBS eggs a bit after the mix gets going and the water cools off a little.  Presto.......live BBS in about 18 hours.

I have around 600 assorted angelfish fry and around 400 Parachromis motaguensis "Red Tiger Motaguense) growing up and need a lot of live BBS on hand.  This unit is working perfectly for me so far. 

Looking forward to ordering a second unit to supply some other breeding fishes I'm working with.

Cheers,

--Brian

Edited September 28, 2020 by Brian Scott

[StephenP2003]

57 minutes ago, Brian Scott said:

FOUR tablespoons of rock salt, ONE teaspoon of Epsom salt, ONE teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and TWO teaspoons of BBS eggs. 

Are you using the aquarium co-op eggs? I'm also curious if you've tried to simplify the additives (say, just adding the rock salt) and if it affected your hatch rate noticeably.

I was trying different combos of salts, added minerals, buffers, amped up the aeration, etc., but the easiest solution to getting a high hatch rate was to just buy the co-op eggs. I'm now doing 3 tablespoons of instant ocean marine salt, that's all. Not sure how your water is. My ph out of the tap is 7.8, and all that's in it is chloramines and calcium carbonate.

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

48 minutes ago, StephenP2003 said:

Are you using the aquarium co-op eggs? I'm also curious if you've tried to simplify the additives (say, just adding the rock salt) and if it affected your hatch rate noticeably.

I was trying different combos of salts, added minerals, buffers, amped up the aeration, etc., but the easiest solution to getting a high hatch rate was to just buy the co-op eggs. I'm now doing 3 tablespoons of instant ocean marine salt, that's all. Not sure how your water is. My ph out of the tap is 7.8, and all that's in it is chloramines and calcium carbonate.

I was getting a decent hatch rate from the cheap vials and instant ocean salt. With the Co-op eggs and instant ocean salt only I get an awesome hatch rate. My water is also close to 8ph with just chlorine. 

I have heard of people who have soft water having recipes that help them get good rates because just eggs + water + salt wasn't doing well for them. But I have liquid rock here so I never had an issue. 

[Cory]

I use 2 tablespoons of Fritz RPM salt, 2 liters of water. And I've hatched up to 2 tablespoons of eggs. When doing 2 tablespoons don't forget to harvest at like 20ish hours, at like 30 hours, the water will foul. At 1 tablespoon of eggs, no problem at basically any time harvesting. 

[Brian Scott]

20 hours ago, StephenP2003 said:

Are you using the aquarium co-op eggs? I'm also curious if you've tried to simplify the additives (say, just adding the rock salt) and if it affected your hatch rate noticeably.

I was trying different combos of salts, added minerals, buffers, amped up the aeration, etc., but the easiest solution to getting a high hatch rate was to just buy the co-op eggs. I'm now doing 3 tablespoons of instant ocean marine salt, that's all. Not sure how your water is. My ph out of the tap is 7.8, and all that's in it is chloramines and calcium carbonate.

I ordered Aquarium Co-Op eggs, but am using up the eggs that I had on hand first so my current success is not with the new Co-Op eggs.

My pH is around 5.5 to 6.0 out of the tap with very little hardness.  Thus the water's very unstable.  I have to use buffers for higher pH / hardness fishes and organisms.  My altum angels love it, though!

A while back I was using marine salt only, and had great results.  I'll go back to marine salt again in ndue time.  Just trying to use up what I have on hand at the moment.

Cheers!!

[Brian Scott]

Went back to using sea salt on my current batch......fingers crossed for a bumper crop tomorrow!!  🙂